I've been drawing since I was 8 years old.
For the last oooooh 5 years, I've been on Gaia's Picture Post thread having my art ripped to shreads by friends and others alike.
It really helps to have others red line your art, because they see things you never will... mostly because you've been starring at your art too long to notice the mistakes. XD

I also started REALLY focusing on the human anatomy for the last 3-4 years. Thanks to people really getting on me for not doing structures under my art first.
It's honestly made me become so much better at my own styles, by knowing hom the bones and muscles work together. -nodnod-

/nods/ I agree. I find it really helpful when other people comment. Just seeing how you would have drawn it shows me what I did wrong.

I really want to take an anatomy class. I need to see if I can find one around here.

GAH....
i should scan your picture in. ; _ ;
-is lazy-

I've never taken any classes.
Just went online and looked up anatomy tutorials and such.
Also did a lot of skeleton research on my own online. Hehe. Then went to basic muscle research to see how the outlaying muscles form the shapes under the skin. ^^;

Then just practice practice practice. -nodnod-

And don't be afraid to look up references while you're drawing, they come in REALLY handy.

I use references occasionally, mainly looking in the mirror, but I'm trying to get down drawing without them.

I've never taken an art class, but I'm sure that the right kind of class would be useful.

Aznty: No worries. I can wait forever. XD

Looking in a mirror isn't really that helpful... you constantly change each time you look then draw, then look. Because no matter how hard you try, you won't remember exactly the angle you had your arm or leg bent or your chin raised... and that all changes how the rest of hte ody pulls and twists. xD

Annnnnd ... a nude anatomy class is helpful.
As are quick sketch clases.
Anything that forces you to draw real life body structures is a good class to take.

But I'm usually looking only at one part of my body, and I know what angle I want anyway. XD like the knee of this picture I'm working on right now. I just needed to figure out how to get it right.

You may know the angle you want... but it may not match up to the rest of the body.
See... when you hold the leg at a certain angle, you might not look at the rest of the body and get it right. Because even the slightest deviation from one angle will change the way the entire body rests, twists, pulls and slouches.

Your best bet, when using yourself, is to snap a picture and work from that. That way you know that you aren't changing anything while working on each part. Even how you hold your arms, can change the way the leg or hip muscles flex and shift under the skin.
Tis very annoying. XD

I always work from a skeleton wire sketch or blob sketch. Then refine and then line... xD
But that's because i'm a bit anal about my anatomy now.
Unles i'm doing freebies, then I suually just freestyle it. >.>;

Hench why the boobs on your art are all wonky. <3

Cami ~ Not that I mind or anything, but back on page 289 I had a bid of 9ooG. I guess it just didn't ... get noted? Anyways. 1oooG on the Horns.

Vah: I've tried doing the skeleton blob thing, but it just doesn't really work for me. I do tend to start nakedish and then add clothes, though.

I've also done the taking pictures of myself thing a lot. XD I lost my camera, though.

Karayna: I'm so sorry. ;-; I must have missed it. I always update the front page immediately, so I check that to see the latest bid. I'll put your bid there right now.

Cam ~ It takes a bit of getting used to ... working up from a skeleton is a bit rough if you don't understand the lengths and movement radius of each bone and muscle. ^^;
Like I said... lots and lots of practice.

I can't even fathom working on a truthfully indepth picture without jotting a skeleton of some sort first. O.O;;

Cami ~ 'Kay, thanks. ^^

I start with a spine, add a vague rib cage, panty type-o area (including hips and crotch), circles where the shoulders are, and then more stick for the arms and legs. With circles as the jointsies.

Tha's my way o' doin' pictures.
Not that it matters much to anyone. "> >

That's a pretty decent way to work from in my opinion. You get the basic idea for everything from that. -nodnod-

VVicked ~ Thank you. ^^
*Hugs*
I liked the overlay you did on the picture.
Before you focused on human anatomy, what did you draw?

I drew anime... O: ...well before that I painted landscapes with oil paint on canvas.... but yeah... anime...
I just drew it... no reason behind the way I drew the body, I just guessed it looked right.
When I look back at old art, I am really appalled at how crapy my anatomy was and how proud I was of it back then. Hehehehehe.

Bah. I"m trying to upload my WIP to show to you guys, but my set up sucks. I can't scan to my current computer, for some reason, so I Have to use my old computer, which takes like ten minutes to do anything and keeps running out of batteries because there's something wrong with the cord.

I have no idea how I lived with this computer for so long.

Edit: Bah. Far to much work to go through to upload one damn picture. <<,, I need to figure out how to scan to this computer.

Anyway, here's the WIP. I'm going to ink it tomorrow. Any suggestions before I do?

That sounds like me with this laptop currently.
It's so old... and I can't take it anywhere, because if I unplug it from the wall, then it completely shuts down from lack of power.
Despite having been plugged in and unused [so should be charging the battery] for such a long time. XD

edit for critique ::

The right leg[thigh and calf] [one closest to us] is far too thick. Her thigh is as thick as her torso is, but if you thin the thigh muscle on the underside towards the knee and give a flat space behind the kneecap, you will also be able to define that lovely calf muscle and thin the calf to a more appropriate size for the rest of her girlish form. Her arm is too short. I think that problem is in the bicep.. the elbow should bend at the indent of the waist right at the hip bone and the fingers should come slightly further than half way down your thigh.
The neck [which seems to be a common for you thus far] is a wee bit too wide.
Shoulder should slope down slightly more so you see more of the neck to shoulder muscle... which could also fix the length of the arm issue... >.>;

And other than that, I rather like it. -nodnod-

Yeah, it's really messed up. I have to rotate and mess with the cord to get it to charge at all.

You know, it's funny. The moment I scanned it in, that leg looked too thick to me, but I still don't think it looks too thick on the original sketch. I think I can fix that easily enough though.

Do you really feel the neck is too thick? I've always thought the neck was almost as thick as the head. Chin juts out when looked at sidelong, of course, but it's pretty thick.

I see the problem with the arm, but I'm not sure I can fix that without completely redoing it. Though I do feel like it ends in almost the right place. I'm measuring it out on me.

That is me, by the way. Or how I see myself. Cameron.

Hmm... well I think the neck is too thick... or too short perhaps... I don't know.
I know the neck is as wide as the jawline, but it DOES taper thin towards the collar line, because the should muscles take over and change the shape. I think it's mostly too thick looking to me, because there is not shoulder slope to truly stretch the cords. Ya know?

The easiest way I see to fix that, is in the back part of the neck, as the front looks alright. I think if you slope it slightly from the back of the skul slowly towards the shoulders, then curve out the shoulder and back, it will look right. Not a LOT mind you, just a wee bit. Because the countour of the body for the neck neck slopes away from the back of the skull, then pivots back out for the shoulders.

And the fingers are almost in the right spot. With a slight bend in the elbow, it'd be perfect. It could also be because the elbow is bending towards the viewer and that's not evident in the drawing. That would make the arm seem shorter too. -nodnodnod-

I think you should only lengthen the bicep a bit [the part where the elbow pops out just a teeny bit, then you should be fine. As that would lengthen the arm properly and show the arm is at a slight bend.

I took off a little of the back of the leg, and that looks better to me. It's still as thick as the torso, but eh. XD. I also lowered the shoulder. I'm messing with the arm. I can't seem to get that elbow right. The arm is bent a little, but I'm just having issues with that elbow. It's like it's not ther.

I'll try your suggestion on the neck.

I'm always scared of making changes at this point in a sketch. XD I'm like, I'll try to fix this, and it'll just keep getting worse and worse, and everything will be ruined. D:

Your sig pic changed. I love your eye makeup.

This is why I no longer work in traditional media for sketches and drawings.
It's so hard to fix things after you've gotten it to a certain point.

I'll still paint and charcoal in traditional medias... but no pencil or precise inked art. >.>; ...unless I have really good blue pencils to draw a base and build up with. -nodnod-

You know what else makes it hard at this stage? XD That damned mesh shirt.

That actually is why I tried to move to digital, but besides just having a lot of trouble getting things to look how I wanted to, it took more time, and just wasn't as much fun, in my opinion. I'm sure that with time it would be basically the same as traditional media, but for now I prefer my pens and paper.

I made the neck a little thinner, and now that I've changed it, I think you're right. It looks better like this.

Hehe... moving to digital was a pain in the arse for me. It took a LOT of practice and i'm still working to get the hang of it.
But i've ALWAYS used MS Paint... so I wasn't too horrible with working with a mouse when I made the choice to do all my art on the computer. Then I bought a tablet and boy was that horrid. XD
Took me over a year to get to the point where I could get to show up on the screen what I was trying to draw with the tablet. Hehe.

But I love drawing digitally now. -nodnod-

Well i'm glad that you're liking the way it's turning out... I just hope that it continues to work out for you. Will you be inking this? I've also found that having a lightbox is really handy with traditional media. That way you can tranfer a deteriorating sketch onto a new sheet of paper andcontinue working. -nodnod-

I made my own lightbox... two cardboardboxes placed inside one another with the old top to a table that my mother threw out [glass topper for it] and a hole cut in the side of hte box so I could put a short lamp under the glass. Hehe.

XD I'm not familiar with a light box, but as much as inking annoys me sometimes, I can't imagine I'd be in love with it.

I will be inking it, tomorrow. I'll show you the final result. I'm gonna mess with the arm some more, but I'm done with it tonight.

You know, it's weird, but I always expect people to comment on my ears. I have the worst trouble drawing the inside the ear lines, and I'm always certain someone will point out how much I've messed that up, but no one ever does.

A lightbox is just that. A box that shines light up... so that you can place a piece of paper over your original artwork and redraw it line for line onto a new piece of paper. :3
Helps when you want to clean something up and erasing is just ruining everything. Or when a linewon't erase.... >.>;

The ears aren't an area people care about too terribly. As long as you aren't going for realism, then you can pretty much draw a squiggly line there and be done with it. I draw the basic shape of the ear a bit of the cannal shadow and the little inside ridges normally. >.>;
Like I did in the draw over I did for you.